Trust & safety
How we vet every tutor
Bantu Plaza is a marketplace of native and heritage-language tutors — fluent speakers, not necessarily licensed schoolteachers. Every tutor is reviewed by a real person before their profile goes live. Nobody is approved automatically.
We want to be honest about what that review does and doesn’t cover. No online marketplace can guarantee safety, and we don’t claim to. Below is exactly what we check, what our badges mean, and how to reach us if something ever feels wrong.
What we review before a tutor goes live
These are the steps a person on our team actually completes. We only list what we do.
A government-issued ID, reviewed by a person
Every tutor must upload a national ID, passport, or driver’s licence. A team member looks at it before approval. This is what our “ID checked” badge means — we confirmed a government ID. It is not a criminal-records or police check. The document is stored privately and is never shown to students.
An intro video and a public profile
Tutors provide an introduction video (uploaded or linked), a public headshot, and a short bio — and can add their teaching experience. Our team reviews these as part of approval so you can see and hear who you’d be learning from.
A teaching qualification, if they have one
Sharing a teaching qualification (such as a TEFL, CELTA, PGCE, or a language degree) is optional. When a tutor supplies one and our team has reviewed the copy, we show the “Qualification on file” badge. We review the document we’re given; we don’t independently authenticate it with the issuing body.
A human decision — never automatic
Every application starts as “pending.” A staff member reviews the ID, any qualification, the intro video and photo, and only then approves the profile and publishes it. If a tutor no longer meets our standards, we can reverse that approval and remove them.
What our badges mean — and don’t
Badges are honest signals of what we hold on file, not guarantees. In short:
- •ID checked — we confirmed a government ID. Not a criminal-records check.
- •Qualification on file — a teaching qualification was shared and reviewed. Not a licence we issue.
- •BP Trained — completed Bantu Plaza’s own short in-house training. This is our own programme, not an external, professional, or government teaching certificate, and doesn’t make someone a registered teacher.
- •Kids welcome — the tutor is 21 or older (age-checked from their date of birth) and teaches 8–17s. This badge is granted by our team and is never switched on automatically. It is not a background check. See our Safeguarding page for exactly what this does and doesn’t mean.
For the full explanation of each badge, read What our badges mean.
What we don’t (yet) do
Being upfront about our limits matters more to us than sounding reassuring.
- —We do not run criminal-background or police checks on tutors — not automatically, and not manually as standard. Where a tutor has agreed to provide a police-clearance certificate if we ask, that is a commitment they’ve made — not a check we’ve already completed.
- —We don’t independently verify a qualification with the body that issued it.
- —Because we’re a new marketplace, we don’t show ratings or reviews we don’t have. We won’t invent them — real reviews will appear over time. Until then, our human review is the trust basis, and we’d rather say so plainly.
How we handle your data and bookings
Tutor documents are kept private
ID and qualification documents are stored in a private, access-restricted area with unguessable filenames, and are only viewable by authorised staff through a protected, logged channel. They’re kept only as long as we need them for review and our legal and safeguarding obligations, then deleted. A tutor may ask us to delete their ID after verification. See our Privacy Policy for the full detail.
Messaging and bookings stay on-platform
Keeping conversations and bookings on Bantu Plaza means there’s a record if a concern is ever raised. Our trust-and-safety team may review messages only where there’s a credible safeguarding concern, and access is logged.
Payments
Booking and payment happen on the platform. For exactly how payments and refunds work, please see our Terms.
We act on reports
How to raise a concern
Trust is ongoing, not a one-time stamp. A tutor can lose a badge or be removed at any time. If something feels off — a tutor asking to move off the platform, requesting personal details, or anything that worries you — tell us and we’ll look into it.
Email us: info@bantuplaza.com. Include the tutor’s name, the booking if there is one, and what happened.
Parents and guardians: please also read our Safeguarding page, which covers children’s lessons in detail.
A real person is always behind our review. Questions about trust or safety? Reach us at info@bantuplaza.com.
See also: Code of Conduct · Terms · Privacy · Safeguarding